Hitherto, the use of an angiotensin II inhibitor for the purpose of lowering ocular tension has been described in reports. However, there are a few cases where the effect has been certified in actual experiment, and only oral use of the inhibitor has been described.
On the other hand, if the inhibitor is used only for the purpose of lowering ocular tension, its local application may be preferable because of less adverse reactions and in fact has been desired so far. Only one preceding invention, however, has been disclosed in International Publication WO 91/15206, where angiotensin II inhibitors (in particular, DUP-753 shown by the following formula) can be locally applied by dropping in the eyes for the therapy of ocular hypertension. ##STR1##
DUP-753
However, in order to use the inhibitor as eye drops, the effect of administering the inhibitor as eye drops in the invention disclosed in the aforesaid International Publication was not enough to use the inhibitor as a medicament.
Though after the Priority Date of the present invention, G. A. Mathis et al. of CIBA Vision Ophtha reported that eye application of angiotensin II inhibitors, CGP 48933 and CGP 49870, showed ocular tension lowering activity, in the annual meeting of "The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology" held in Florida from May 1st to 6th, 1994; and the abstracts including this report were published under date of Mar. 15th, 1994.